The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transporting and storing sheets which consist of paper or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in a method and apparatus for the transport and temporary storage of scalloped streams of sheets wherein the sheets partially overlap each other. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus wherein a rotary hub is connected with a flexible element and the latter can be coiled around the hub to thereby store sheets between its convolutions, or uncoiled from the hub to thereby remove sheets from the locus of temporary storage around the hub.
An apparatus of the just outlined character is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,838,065. A drawback of the patented apparatus is that the scalloped stream of sheets which are removed from the locus of storage in the region around the rotatable hub cannot be readily processed because they overlap each other in the wrong way, namely, each preceding sheet of the stream which is removed from storage overlaps the next-following sheet. Successive sheets of such a scalloped stream cannot be readily stacked in a duct or the like (e.g., in the magazine of a gathering machine), and successive sheets of such stream cannot be transferred from a preceding conveyor onto a next-following conveyor.
It was also proposed to invert the scalloped stream through 180.degree. prior to delivery into the range of the flexible element, i.e., prior to coiling of sheets around the hub while the latter rotates in a direction to collect the flexible element. The inversion takes place about an axis which extends in the longitudinal direction of the scalloped stream. This eliminates the aforediscussed problem, i.e., each preceding sheet of the stream which is removed from storage on the hub is overlapped by the next-following sheet. However, the inversion can create other serious problems, for example, when only one side of each sheet carries printed matter or when the two sides of a sheet carry different printed matter. This scrambles the sequence of pages on sheets which are to be assembled into pamphlets, books or like products.